


A Hint of Chocolate

by shadowshrike



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day Fluff, cliche as HECK
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 13:40:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9741446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowshrike/pseuds/shadowshrike
Summary: Valentine's day is difficult to navigate for any new couple. Cultural expectations and hidden feelings make it harder, but in the end, love finds a way.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A silly, quick thing written for Valentine's - apologies for any glaring errors. Enjoy the over-the-top sappiness and totally predictable plot. ;)

Kaze groaned as a pillow smacked him in the side of the head, groggily opening his eyes to the tinted glow filtering through his tent. Valentine’s celebrations must have taken more out of him than he thought. Judging by the light, it had to be almost noon, and he’d slept right through someone breaking into his tent; if that pillow had been a dagger, he’d be dead. 

Kaze’s gaze drifted to the giant mound of sweets in near his bedroll. He’d hoped to sort them and gift a few to Rinkah or maybe even Xander (though the prince likely had enough of his own from admirers), but it seemed that’d have to wait until he caught up on duties for the day. 

“What’s taking you so long? Stop lazing around!” his brother’s voice hollered from the entrance. 

Sparing Saizo a sleepy glare, Kaze chucked the pillow back at him while swinging his feet to the floor so he could stand. He grimaced when his legs wobbled beneath him. “I’m on my way, Saizo. I’ll be ready for training in just a moment.”

“You’re already too late for that,” Saizo scoffed. “Why else do you think I’m here?”

Kaze briefly considered throwing a handful of candy at his twin as he went through the lengthy routine of slipping into and tying all the layers of his ninja gear. No, it probably wasn’t worth the potential damage to camp from the fallout. Besides, there might have been too much of it, but they were perfectly good sweets, many of them handmade. It would be a waste to see them incinerated.

Sliding the last of his weapons into his uniform, Kaze sighed, “I’m sorry for my tardiness, then. What do you need from me, brother?”

“I came to tell you that there’s been a change to the schedule. You’re on mess hall duty today.”

“Mess hall?” Kaze murmured to himself.

Corrin had specifically made sure he wouldn’t be in the mess hall for the aftermath of Valentine’s, same as Ryoma did for Saizo. The place would be caked in chocolate and burnt sugar from soldiers’ failed attempts at baking, an aromatic nightmare for anyone who had an aversion to sweets. Although Kaze didn’t usually share Saizo’s distaste, the sheer volume he had to deal with this time of year could make even the amiable ninja nauseous. If he was on mess duty, then it must be a punishment for something. 

The problem was, he couldn’t think of what he might have done to warrant discipline. Perhaps he’d insulted someone while managing the hordes of gifts yesterday. It wouldn’t be the first time a lady with her heart set on him had tried to sabotage him for politely rejecting their affections - it was possible his statement that he was already seeing someone had set them off.

Well, if Kaze wanted to get out of there at a reasonable hour, the sooner he began the better. 

“Thank you for the update. I’ll get started presently,” Kaze said, nodding tightly.

Saizo fixed his brother with a contemplative frown. It was the kind he wore when he wasn’t sure how his twin was capable of being so dense, like he knew exactly why Kaze was being punished and couldn’t believe Kaze didn’t. Before the green ninja could ask about it, Saizo grunted an affirmation and disappeared from Kaze’s tent, leaving Kaze alone to finish his preparations for the day.

* * *

 

“Oh~? Who’s here to help me lift all these big, heavy....oh, it’s just you, Kaze,” Charlotte grumbled, her cutesy voice falling away when she spotted him nearing the kitchen. 

Hoisting up an impressive stack of dirty pans, Charlotte marched over to the sinks and dropped them on the counter with a thunderous clang. Splatters of what Kaze hoped was cake and cookie batter coated every surface of the kitchen, crusted blobs that smelled more like charcoal than food. Whoever had been cooking here last night clearly had no clue what they were doing. 

Kaze chuckled as took his place beside Charlotte and began thoughtlessly scrubbing the cookware clean, “Yes, just me. Sorry to disappoint.”

“At least you’re good at this,” Charlotte said. She glanced over at his station and shook her head - he was already doubling her pace, and she did this nearly every day. Part of that ninja training which made all of them act so weird, probably.

“It’s nothing special. I simply have a lot of practice,” he replied nonchalantly. His eyes wandered to the sticky smears next to his station. “Though whoever was here last night could maybe use a little more…”

Charlotte growled as she worked at a particularly stubborn stain, “Some people shouldn’t be allowed in a kitchen.”

“Felicia?” Kaze guessed.

“Lord Xander,” Charlotte corrected, tossing her now spotless pot aside with another loud clang. 

Kaze’s hands stilled. He turned to stare at his companion while she took her frustration out on the pot, threatening to scrub a hole through the poor thing. 

“Prince Xander was...cooking?”

Charlotte huffed, “I know, I didn’t believe it either. I was soooo excited when he came to join me in the kitchen and started complimenting my cooking skills, thought maybe I’d started to win him over, but then all he wanted to do was ask for pointers so he could make Valentine’s chocolate for someone else. He must have thrown out three hundred truffles before he made one he liked enough to package.” She thumbed over her shoulder at one of the overflowing trash cans. “Most of ‘em ended up in there. What a waste of good ingredients.”

Curious, Kaze leaned over to peer into where Charlotte had indicated. A confectioner’s sugar-capped mountain of gooey, misshapen treats melded together in the bin, forming a mass of refuse that smelled sickly sweet with an acrid undercurrent from over or under-baking. It was hard to believe one person would have enough persistence to fail this many times and keep trying. Then again, it was Xander they were talking about.

Xander...making Valentine’s chocolate. A surge of jealousy clawed at Kaze’s heart. 

He knew their relationship wasn’t public, but he didn’t think Xander would go so far as to cook for someone else on Valentine’s day as cover. In fact, he didn’t realize Nohrian men gave presents on Valentine’s day at all; in Hoshido, it was strictly the women who offered gifts to their significant others. Kaze had assumed that was why Xander didn’t even say hello yesterday. But if Xander baked treats for someone else, maybe it wasn’t only that they were both men which made him avoid Kaze on Valentine’s.

“Oy, Kaze!” Charlotte called, snapping him from his depressing train of thought. When the ninja looked back, she was staring at him, having finished a couple more pans while he was gawking at the garbage.

“Ah, sorry. Just amazed at all the trash,” Kaze muttered. His frown suggested otherwise. 

“Eh..? What’s…”

“Hey, Kaze! You in here?” a bright voice hollered from the front of the mess hall over Charlotte’s question. “I’m supposed to be relieving you from mess duty!”

Purposefully turning away from Charlotte, who was still pinning him with a suspicious glower, Kaze stepped out to greet their guest. “Hello, Laslow. There’s no need for you to do that. I’m sure Charlotte and I will get it done in no time.”

“The lovely lady Charlotte is here, too? It seems this is my lucky day,” Laslow singsonged with a delighted smile on his lips. He shuffled from foot to foot, hoping to get a glimpse of her long, blonde hair.

Fearing Laslow was dangerously close to being lost in his dreams of romantic conquest, Kaze cleared his throat and tried again, “Yes, she is, but as I was saying, I don’t mind staying here. You don’t need to waste your afternoon cleaning this place.”

Laslow’s focus reluctantly snapped back to the man in front of him, “Oh, um...well, it was Lord Xander who sent me. He said you should join him on patrol because he needed to talk to you.”

For a single, irrational moment, Kaze thought to refuse Xander’s orders. Baking truffles for a mystery lady (or man), being completely absent on Valentine’s day, and now pulling Kaze away from work to speak with him alone; it all added up to an unpleasant conclusion. Kaze had hoped this wouldn’t end so soon, even though he knew anything between them was on borrowed time, but if Xander had moved on, there was no point in postponing it.

“Understood. I’ll find him presently,” Kaze said, low and sullen.

He ignored how Laslow’s smile faltered when he brushed past, marching to the beat of his sinking heart.

* * *

 

Locating Xander turned out easier than Kaze anticipated. The prince had taken off to patrol on horseback, allowing Kaze to navigate the winding route he took through the forest by following a trail of Bucephalus’ deep hoofprints. When he reached the end of the tracks, he was surprised to see both horse and rider making no effort to hide their presence. 

It was unlike Xander to miss an opportunity to test Kaze’s vigilance. Though he couldn’t say he always enjoyed saying “hello” by dodging a swipe from Siegfried, it was preferable to the muted wave Xander gave now, silently asking Kaze to approach. As if this afternoon hadn’t been ominous enough.

Wanting to get this over with, Kaze took the initiative to start their conversation, “Prince Xander. You asked for me?”

A sharp nod and a scowl answered him. “Yes. I wanted to apologize to you. I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the best of me. You didn’t deserve to have mess hall duty today.”

“You...were the one who changed the assignments?” 

It made a sick sort of sense, Kaze reasoned. Working in the kitchen allowed Xander to let him down ‘easy’ by showing off all the trouble he’d gone to for someone else yesterday, someone more deserving of Xander’s time than Kaze. A resentful voice in the back of his mind hissed that the crown prince was a coward for not telling him face-to-face. Bucephalus shifted uneasily beneath Xander, reacting to the rising tension in the air.

“I thought that would be obvious,” the prince replied. 

“Saizo didn’t inform me it was you, but from my short time there, I suppose I understand,” Kaze responded with crossed arms.

A dreaded silence loomed between them. If Kaze’s chest didn’t ache so much, he would have chuckled at the irony. Two grown men playing a game of chicken over who would admit their feelings first.

“Well,” Xander prompted. “Aren’t you going to apologize?”

Kaze blinked and his frown deepened. “For what?”

Xander’s malcontent glare swelled to a near snarl. Kaze had seen Xander furious before on more than one occasion, but never directed at him. Already monstrously tall seated atop his horse and towering above the ninja in a god of war’s black armor, Kaze felt as though the prince’s glower might rend the flesh from his bones from the heat of its fury alone. An equally icy part of Kaze stood firm against the blaze, even as the mere thought of royalty being disappointed him him dug shame’s all-too-familiar claws into him.

“How could you ask that? Do I mean so little to you?” Xander spat.

“I’m not the one who spent all day making a gift for another sweetheart,” Kaze accused before his brain caught up to his mouth. He cursed his own sentimentality. If their relationship wasn’t already broken, it would be now.

But instead of anger or embarrassment at being found out, Xander’s expression softened into puzzlement. “What are you talking about?”

“Charlotte told me you were there all day making truffles for someone special,” Kaze sighed and glanced away, “You could have just told me you’d found someone else. I understand.”

Deliberate yet cautious, Xander corrected him, “Kaze...I was making a truffle for you. I wanted it to be perfect, and you’d already taken off for town by the time I finished. I left it next to your bedroll as a surprise.”

“I don’t recalling seeing…” Kaze trailed off. He thought back to last night, getting to his tent hours after he had planned to and unceremoniously dropping the lot of presents he’d received from town next to his pillow before all-but collapsing. “Oh no…I must have…”

“Kaze?”

Kaze dropped into a deep, regretful bow. “I’m so, so sorry Prince Xander. After returning late last night, I think I may have buried your gift under other offerings I received from town. I never knew it was there. When I saw everything you made in the kitchen after not speaking with you yesterday, I’m ashamed to admit I thought you were seeing someone else behind my back.” His voice dropped to a whisper, “I never should have doubted you.”

“There is no need to apologize. I think we both misunderstood each other’s intentions,” Xander answered. His soft chuckle inspired Kaze to look up at him.

“Misunderstood?”

“Yes. I didn’t go to see you last night because I expected you to come to me after reading the message I sent with the truffle. When you didn’t...Well, I came to the same conclusion as you.”

A crease more more suited to the crown prince wore into Kaze’s brow. “I would never chase someone else, Xander. There is no one in this world I could feel as strongly about as I do you.”

“I could say the same. But perhaps, it would be best for both our sakes that I let my gift do the talking for me.” Xander offered his hand to Kaze. “Ride with me back to camp and we’ll find it together.”

Taking the offered hand with the first genuine smile he’d had since waking, Kaze allowed himself to be dragged into the saddle behind Xander with practiced ease. They’d done this so often during battle, no one would even look at them twice riding into camp this way, Kaze’s arms wrapped around Xander’s armored chest and his face resting against the softness of his cape whenever they picked up speed.

“May I ask you something, Xander?” Kaze mumbled into the prince’s shoulder.

“Hm?”

“Why did you put so much effort into making those truffles yourself?”

Xander hummed, “It’s a Hoshidan custom, is it not? I believe how I learned it was something like - you must make the chocolates with your own hands, or your true heart will not be felt.”

“That’s the general idea, yes. Then you also know that Valentine’s day is usually celebrated by only women giving the gifts?” Kaze pushed, his tone warmed by the width of his smile. Xander never ceased to amaze with how thorough he could be when it came to those he cared about.

“Mm. Well unless you’d prefer to think of me as a woman, perhaps you should consider it a touch of Nohrian flair to the tradition,” Xander said, so serious that Kaze couldn't help but laugh.

“I believe that would be best, my prince,” he murmured between chuckles. “And I hope you will forgive my intention to wait until White Day to reciprocate?”

“I would expect nothing less.”

DIsregarding the curious stares from the soldiers they passed, the two rode the rest of the way to Kaze’s tent without feeling the need to speak. They enjoyed the warm breeze and a closeness they rarely had an opportunity to share. Stolen touches and shy kisses in the dead of night were a poor substitute for affections freely shown in the light of day. At least like this, with Kaze resting against Xander’s back while they listened to the rhythmic pound of Bucephalus’ hooves, they could pretend they didn’t have to hide.

At last arriving, the two hopped from the steed’s back with an affectionate pat on the shoulder and ducked into Kaze’s tent. The pile of boxes and bags was right where he left it, a humiliatingly huge mound in an otherwise sparse living space.

“All of these are yours? No wonder you didn’t see it...” Xander marveled. Although his eyes roamed the entirety of Kaze’s small domicile, they kept returning to the monstrous heap of gifts. Kaze offered a quick prayer to the Drawn Dragon that Xander wouldn’t think any less of him for the unseemly addition to his humble quarters.

“Yes, I’m afraid the women in town are far too generous. At least half of them relented when I said I was already seeing someone this time,” Kaze sighed, already sorting through the boxes while Xander hovered in the entrance.

“This is only half of what you normally receive?”

Kaze nodded, setting aside a particularly beautiful ruby box that smelled of hard candies more than chocolates. Rinkah would appreciate that one for sure. “At least in recent years, I would say so. It’s a relief to have a more manageable amount.” 

At last he spotted what had to be Xander’s gift - a tiny black box tied with a purple velvet ribbon edged in gold. A nod from the prince confirmed it, as did the thinness of his frown and how he didn’t quite meet Kaze’s eyes. Xander was clearly nervous about whatever message he’d left in that box.

Kaze opened it with care, setting aside the ribbon before unfolding the box’s lid. There were only two things inside: a single truffle, and a folded up piece of paper. Unfolding the page revealed an immaculately penned note addressed to Kaze. The ninja began to read:

_ My dearest Kaze, _

_ It has been quite some time since we first began seeing each other. Too long, perhaps, to justify what I am about to say for the first time.  _

_ I love you. _

_ I know I should have said it to you in the rare moments we have together instead of writing it in this letter. I hope you will forgive me this one unprincely act of cowardice. I’m afraid I find it hard to express myself when I’m around you, and only recently have I realized that it’s because my feelings for you are so powerful that I could not bear it if you did not feel that same. The thought of losing you terrifies me as much as I fear losing my own family. In fact, I can say with certainty that I consider you family, now. _

_ That is why I hope you will consider meeting with them, not as unlikely friends, but as a couple. There are many things you and I must hide from the world; I don’t want our relationship to be one of them any longer. Not from anyone. _

_ Please consider my words. Whenever you have an answer, I will be waiting. _

_ With all my love, _

_ Prince Xander of Nohr _

A wet swallow through a mostly-closed throat chased the end of the letter as Kaze folded it meticulously along the same creases Xander had. He wordlessly tucked it inside his gi over his heart. Not yet trusting his voice, Kaze returned his attention to the little truffle Xander had crafted.

It was a perfect sphere, its shell a hard mix of nearly-black chocolate and white stars painstakingly painted on with the point of a knife. Curious, Kaze took a small nibble. He couldn’t stop a tiny surprised moan from slipping free - the inside was as creamy and rich as the outside was brittle. A dark combination of sensual flavors danced on his tongue as he let it melt. It reminded him rather of Xander himself: attractive and hard on the outside, yet soft and, dare he say it, enticing on the inside.

Kaze still held the remaining chocolate between his fingers when he approached Xander. The prince wouldn’t meet his gaze, but a light dusting of pink on his cheeks told Kaze all he needed to know. 

“Well?” Xander whispered. “How is it?”

“Why don’t you find out for yourself?”

Kaze popped the entirely of the remaining truffle into his mouth in the same motion that he grasped Xander’s wrist, pulling the two of them together. He kissed Xander before the prince could recover, swirling the chocolate beneath his tongue so he could pry his way past the other’s lips. Xander gasped. It was enough for Kaze to force his way in, pushing the sweet to his love and sharing the taste of each other combined with delectable chocolate in a kiss deeper and more passionate than any they had ever shared. Kaze wasn’t sure who was groaning, only that it felt good - no,  _ amazing _ .

Near delirious with the flavor, Kaze backed them both out of the entrance, Xander allowing himself to be led along as he chased Kaze’s lips. They passed the chocolate back and forth between them until it was nothing but a trace of melted succulence smeared on each other’s tongues and lips. It was only once they had no choice but to pause for air that Xander realized where they were.

Kaze hadn’t backed them into the tent. He had backed them out of it.

A small contingent of soldiers a hundred yards off was staring at them. Xander looked down at Kaze, who smiled back at him, impossibly fond and a smidge coy.

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting,” Kaze said, ignoring the far-off murmurs when he brushed one of Xander’s curls behind his ear. “I hope this answer is clear enough for you. 

“I love you, too, Xander.”


End file.
